18

In answer to your question: at the moment persons encounter Amida’s Vow – which is Other Power giving itself to us – and the hearth that receives true shinjin and rejoices becomes settled in them, they are grasped, never to be abandoned. Hence, the moment they realize the diamondlike mind, they are said to abide in the stage of the truly settled and to attain the same stage as Bodhisattva Maitreya.

Since persons of true and real shinjin are of the same stage as Maitreya, they are equal to Buddhas. Moreover, all Buddhas feel great joy when such a person rejoices in the realization of true shinjin, and they proclaim, “This person is our equal.” Sakyamuni’s words of rejoicing are found in the Larger Sutra: “The one who sees, reveres, and attains [the dharma] and greatly rejoices – that persons is my excellent, close companion”; thus he teaches that the person who has attained shinjin is equal to Buddhas.

Further, since Maitreya has already become one who is certain to attain Buddhahood, he is called Maitreya Buddha. By this we know that the person who has already realized shinjin that is Other Power can be said to be equal to Buddhas. You should have no doubts about this.

There is nothing I can do about your fellow-practicers, who say that they await the moment of death. Those whose shinjin has become true and real – this being the benefit of the Vow – have been grasped, never to be abandoned; hence they do not depend on Amida’s coming at the moment of death. The person whose shinjin has not yet become settled awaits the moment of death in anticipation of Amida’s coming.

I will be very happy if you take the name Zuishin-bo. What you have written in your letter is splendid. I cannot accept what your fellow-practicers are saying, but there is nothing to be done about it.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The Collected Works of Shinran has been designed to present the entire body of Shinran's doctrinal writings in translations that are consistent in method, lucid, and reliable. English versions have been produced drawing on recent research in Buddhist, historical, and religious studies and on the rich tradition of Shin Buddhist scholarship. Special attention has been given to rendering Shinran's works with a high degree of literal accuracy, in the hope that the translations might thus serve effectively in guiding readers to an understanding of the core of his thought, the religious transformation termed shinjin.

The translations have been closely reviewed by a committee chaired by the General Editor of the Shin Buddhism Translation Series. Professor Yoshifumi Ueda served as General Editor from the start of the Series in 1978 to the year of his death in 1993, at the age of eighty-eight. He contributed formatively and substantially to the policies for translation and to a number of introductions and glossary entries. Professor Gadjin M. Nagao, who has been active in the project since its beginnings, has served as General Editor from 1993 to the present. The review committee, which has met monthly since 1978, at present includes, in addition to the translation staff: Professors Keiwa Ishida, Jitsuen Kakehashi, and Ryusei Takeda. In the past, Professors Ryosetsu Fujiwara, Mitsuyuki Ishida (deceased), Kenryo M. Kumata (deceased), Hakunin Matsuo, Michio Sato, and Shoho Takemura also served on this committee.

Throughout the project from its inception, the original drafts of the translations have been prepared by the Head Translator, Dennis Hirota, and then reviewed in weekly meetings with a committee of translators. This committee, which has also contributed to the introductions and other appended materials, at present includes Professors Hisao Inagaki, Michio Tokunaga, and Ryushin Uryuzu. In the past, Professors Taitetsu Unno and Fumimaro Watanabe (deceased) also served on this committee and contributed in particular to deliberations regarding translations of technical terms.

Invaluable assistance in the process of publication has been provided by Kimiko Hirota (editorial assistance and proofreading), Masako Sugimoto (proofreading and indexing), Yoshiharu Wake (list of terms), and W.S. Yokoyama (copy editing, book design, and cover).